Ever since Clay Andrews came to the Renaissance Agoura Hills three years ago, finding candidates for available positions at the hotel has been tough. It’s not a matter of finding the right person, Andrews says; it’s a matter of finding a person at all. People are just not applying. “It’s across the board,” Andrews said. “Even management.” The situation is mirrored at hotels across the San Fernando Valley and the region, where human resource departments are grappling with a longstanding void of candidates for such positions as housecleaners, cooks, desk help and managers. For many, the lack of workers comes down to a simple issue: access to public transportation. “It just depends on where you are,” said Gordon Luster, general manager of the Warner Center Marriott Hotel in Woodland Hills. Luster said his hotel has long faced a shortage, but it benefits from nearby bus routes and an Orange Line stop. The way he sees it, a hotel’s shortage of workers is directly proportional to “the supply of qualified candidates that are interested in working in hospitality that can get to your location.” A good example of that is the Renaissance Agoura Hills, where the nearest bus line is two miles away. For someone applying for a housekeeping position making $10 an hour, not having public transportation nearby is hugely discouraging. Living nearby is also usually not an option the median Agoura Hills home in July was $820,000, according to the real estate firm DataQuick. As a result, those working at the Renaissance are forced to drive in from the Valley and beyond, Andrews said. “They want to own a home, so they live a little farther out. It’s tough,” he said. “We have people driving an hour-and-a-half both ways to get here.” Even as general manager, the cost of Agoura Hills is too much for him, Andrews said. “I can’t afford to live here,” he said. “I have to drive in.” Compare that to Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn Universal Studios Hollywood in Studio City, which sits a mile or so from Red and Orange lines stops. General Manager Bert J. Seneca said demand for positions there has been strong, although he admitted it’s slightly down from previous years. Seneca, however, credits the downturn not to a lack of transportation but to the fact fewer people are seeing the hospitality industry as a viable option for a lifelong occupation. “We no longer find people who want it as a career,” he said. “It’s a way to pay the bills.” A robust economy doesn’t help either. “The better the economy, the harder it is to find people,” Seneca said. “People can pick and choose.” Industrywide The shrinking labor force has been a major issue in the hospitality industry for at least the past 10 years. Washington-based American Hotel & Lodging Association contends the situation could become worse if Congress passes immigration reforms. The association has said that foreign-born workers are necessary to fill many hospitality jobs and strongly advocates continuing the temporary worker program, which expires this month, said President and CEO Joseph McInerney. “We have more people coming out of the workforce than going into the workforce. It’s going to get worse as we move on,” he said. The shortage could also increase as people return to traveling, which fell after Sept. 11 and the SARS outbreak a few years ago. Locally, Valley hotels have seen occupancy rates steadily increase over the past months, including a 1.2 percent jump in July from a year prior, according to the hotel industry tracking firm PKF Consulting. A spate of new hotels are also coming online in the region, including two in Santa Clarita, three in Lancaster and a 126-room Homewood Suites in Agoura Hills. From Andrews’ perspective, those new rooms and increased stays mean the demand for staff locally will grow even fiercer in coming years. “We have new supply coming,” he said. “It’s going to make it that much difficult.” Andrews said one way to blunt the impact is to make sure existing workers are happy. He said the hotel offers a competitive salary. “We try to take the proactive approach and make people want to stay,” he said.
